This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Water filtration has become common in homes, offices and other places to produce cleaner and better tasting water. One filtration system that is gaining popularity is the portable water bottle that can be easily carried and used in many different settings. The convenience of including a filtration feature within the portable water bottle makes the bottle much more attractive to users. For instance, the water bottle provides filtered water wherever there is a water source, such as drinking fountain or tap. As long as water is available, the user has access to filtered water. The filtration system generally includes a filter through which water passes to remove particles, chemicals, microbes, and the like. For proper operation, the filters should be changed periodically.
Conventional water bottles include a reservoir that accepts and holds unfiltered water before filtering. A couple of drawbacks to this system includes wasted space in the reservoir that could be used to hold filtered water, and a long wait period before filtered water is available to the user. The reservoir is needed because the filter system used in conventional water bottles has a flow rate that is slower than a fill rate typically experienced by any system providing water, such as, that from a drinking fountain or water faucet. As such, water held in the reservoir is slowly filtered through the filter system. Also, the reservoir is small so as to not take up too much space, thereby reserving the majority of space in the water bottle to hold filtered water. However, because the reservoir is small, it requires multiple fill and filter cycles before the water bottle is full. For example, a typical use case includes filling the reservoir with water, filtering the water in the reservoir, waiting for the reservoir to empty, and repeating the process until the water bottle is full with filtered water.
In another implementation, conventional water bottles have an active filtration system. That is, water must be pumped from a holding reservoir and through the filter system in order to obtain filtered water. In addition to the drawbacks of having a holding reservoir described above, this implementation requires a pumping mechanism to be configured into the water bottle. In some implementations, the pumping mechanism is activated by the user. For instance, the user would squeeze the water bottle to pump the water through the filter system. As a drawback, this implementation requires attention and action by the user to enable the filtration process before the user has access to filtered water.
In still other conventional water bottles, a venting system is required to vent a chamber holding filtered water. In particular, as filtered water is added to the chamber, displaced air is vented through a venting system. Without venting, the filter system would cease to operate due to excessive back pressure. While venting is a convenient solution, any venting system adds complexity to the design, and will add additional manufacturing costs to the water bottle.